In an effort to build public support in the wake of Obama's pledge to establish a windfall profits tax on oil companies, the oil and gas industry has started running advertisements that aim to link America's economic prosperity with their own.

Under the guise of "The People of America's Oil and Gas Industry," the API, a trade group, has taken out ads in newspapers and on television telling Americans that they likely have an ownership stake in their member companies.

The spot says "millions of mostly middle-class Americans have an ownership stake in the nation's oil and natural gas companies through pension plans, IRA accounts and mutual funds. All of them invest heavily in oil and natural gas stocks, enabling the industry's strong earnings to help support Americans' financial security."

With gasoline prices heading north of $4 a gallon and with Exxon Mobil pulling in $40.6bn in net income last year, I'm curious how sympathetically the American public will react.